John Casken - The Dream of the Rood 2019

John Casken - The Dream of the Rood

Жанр: Classical choral
Страна-производитель диска: Made in UK?
Год издания диска: 2019
Издатель (лейбл): NMC
Номер по каталогу: NMCD245
Дата записи: 2014
Аудиокодек: FLAC
Тип рипа: image+.cue
Битрейт аудио: (lossy + lossless)
Продолжительность: 50:19
Источник: релизер
-источник/ник/другое: lebiega, подарок; Caterina Sforza - работа с cue, доп. сканы
: да
Треклист:

1 Anon Vetus abit littera 3’30

2 Anon - Procurans odium 2’10

3 Anon - Deus misertus hominis 5’54

4 Pérotin (arr. Casken) - Viderunt omnes* 12’03
John Casken - The Dream of the Rood

5 I. 4’44

6 II. 0’34

7 III. 2’48

8 IV. 0’42

9 V. 1’57

10 VI. 0’35

11 VII. 0’45

12 VIII. 3’28

13 IX. 0’37

14 X. 1’34

15 XI. 0’27

16 XII. 1’53

17 XIII. 3’17

18 XIV. 1’01

19 XV. 2’11

Исполнители

The Dream of the RoodAnonymous
Vetus abit littera
Procurans odium
Deus misertus hominis
Pérotin (fl c1200), arr. John Casken (b1949)
Viderunt omnes
John Casken (b1949)
The Dream of the Rood
[u]The Hilliard Ensemble
Asko | Schönberg Ensemble[/u]
Clark Rundell, conductor
Recording Date: October 9, 2014
Recording Location: Muziekgebouw aan het U, The Netherlands
Release Date: July 12, 2019
Audio CD (26 July 2019)

About

Casken’s work is often inspired by literature and legend, landscape and painting and particularly by the Northumberland countryside where he lives. His compositions have won a Gramophone award, the First Britten Award for Composition, the Prince Pierre de Monaco Prize, a British Composer Award for Vocal Music, as well as shortlistings for both RPS and British Composer Awards.
The Dream of the Rood sets texts chosen by the composer from the Anglo-Saxon poem of the same name which dramatically describes the story of the crucifixion in a highly original portrayal of Christ’s death coupled with Casken’s own arrangement of Pérotin’s Viderunt omnes, the earliest surviving vocal work of plainsong in four parts. In both arrangements, Casken introduces a large instrumental ensemble and masterfully enhances the medieval texts and music of the originals within a highly effective contemporary context. Alongside these are three pieces from the rare Conductus repertoire of the 12th/13th centuries which have been core to The Hilliard Ensemble's performing library.
This release marks the significant contribution to British music of one of its most notable vocal ensembles and one of its richest of composing voices, in work that is equally moving and dramatic.

Review

AllMusic Review by James Manheim [-]
The Hilliard Ensemble disbanded in 2014, but recordings continue to trickle out to the delight of the group's fans. This one, made in the Netherlands in October of that year, must be among the last ones. It features a setting, written for the group in 2008 by composer John Casken, of the mysterious medieval English poem The Dream of the Rood. A rood is a cross on a large beam or screen (the word 'rod' is related). The poem not only relates the narrator's dream of talking to the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified but also (you may want to sit down for this) the dreams of the wood in the cross itself. Casken adapts the text and puts it into modern English, but the outlines of the original poem are fully visible. The opening four works on the album, one of the vast Pérotin works known by the name organum plus three smaller anonymous works, announce his stylistic intentions: Casken writes in a rugged idiom that might be called neo-medieval, even more so than the other contemporary works written for the Hilliard Ensemble. Tonally the work is more dissonant than Pérotin (Stravinsky is another reference point), but its references to medieval sacred music are clear, and they combine with the wild text to produce something really piquant. Sample the 'Motet of Sacrifice,' one of those sections in which the wood itself speaks, and speaks perhaps in erotic terms, depending on your perspective. Essential for Hilliard devotees, and if you read The Dream of the Rood in an Old English class, you may well find your memories enhanced by Casken's craggy work.